Monthly Archives: February 2017

In honor of African American History Month, we would like to introduce you to one of AU’s African American student leaders.

Norman Early was the first elected African American President of AU’s student government. He served from 1966 to 1967. Early, a graduate of the District of Columbia’s Coolidge High School, was a government major and athlete. He was a member of AU’s track team for all four years. He participated in a variety of events including the triple jump and relays. Early also served as President of the Sophomore Class (1964-1965) and as Vice President of the Student Association (1965-1966). Early won the Oral Interpretation Contests at AU’s Speech Festival in 1964. He was a member of Zeta Beta Tau.

The 1966 election was the first to draw a majority of the student body. Early won 52% of the vote. In his campaign, he called for end to “status quo” type government and a reorganization of representation in student government based upon school of enrollment and area of residence.

A university president serves many roles such as champion, fundraiser, leader, strategist, and visionary. AU’s 14th President Neil Kerwin brought a forthright manner, honesty and passion to his work. Please join AU Library in celebrating the many accomplishments of his presidency through an exhibit of photographs that will be on display on the first floor of the Library through the end of the semester.

President Kerwin with Clawed and the Nationals Mascot, Screech, at AU Night at the Nationals on August 31, 2012

Renovation of our AU Archives new space began in earnest in late December/early January. Progress is slow but steady. They are currently reinforcing the floors in the stacks to allow for the installation of mobile shelving. The new floors in the stacks will be much higher than the floors elsewhere so they had to create a ramp. Here are a couple of photographs of the ramp and the steel beams that will support the floor in the stacks.

Ramp to stacks

Steel beams for reinforcing floor in stacks

Our offices, reading room and work area are farther along and work continues on those spaces as well. The timing of our move remains uncertain. Our goal of reopening in time for AU’s Founders Day (2/24) proved to be unrealistic. It is clear our space will not be ready for occupancy until late March at the earliest. We hope to have a more concrete timeline by the end of this month. We will post another update as we get closer to our move date.

We appreciate everyone’s support and patience. We believe our new space will be well worth the wait.